Hull's four-year reign as the UK City of Culture is a distant memory but there's a new title to be proud of.

Yorkshire's Maritime City is seeing waves of tourists flock to its new attractions, most notably the Arctic Corsair, Hull's last sidewinder deep sea trawler, now berthed in an historic dry dock on the River Hull next to Dock Office Row.

It's the place where both HMS Bounty and HMS Boreas, once commanded by Horatio Nelson, were built.

At what was once the North End shipyard, visitors can walk right under the hull of the Corsair instead of just seeing it lying marooned in a mudbank further down river.

The Arctic Corsair in her current berth on the River Hull

A short walk away, Queens Gardens has been redeveloped an an outdoor museum with specially-designed installations telling its story as Hull's first dock and its important role as a catalyst to the port's expansion in the 19th century.

Close by, the revamped Maritime Museum now boasts a whole new floor for people to explore the city's unrivalled collections of maritime heritage while visitors can now enjoy views across the city centre from of the building's domes.

In the distance, the newly-restored Spurn Lightship in Hull Marina offers another stop on the tourist trail.

It aims to build on the undoubted feelgood factor surrounding 2017 and the pulling power Hull is now enjoying as a blossoming destination for short-break holidaymakers.

An installation titled We Are Hull by artist Zolst Balogh is projected onto the city's Maritime Museum, forming part of the Made in Hull series marking the official opening of Hull's tenure as UK City of Culture

But there's an even bigger ambition behind all this according to Garry Taylor, the council's major projects director.

"As well as celebrating the city's maritime history, it's also a story about the future prosperity of the city and the end game is getting a cruise terminal," he said.

Attracting cruise ships and their free-spending passengers to Hull could well be the next chapter in the 2,000-year story of Hull's relationship with the sea.

That story began with wool and wine being traded across the North Sea. In the future, it could all revolve around cruise ship passengers exploring the delights of the fish deck of a 1960s trawler or climbing a spiral staircase to enjoy a bird's eye view of dancing fountains from a cupola window.

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Mr Green said most of the exhibits and display areas in the Maritime Museum had remained largely unchanged since it first opened in the mid-1970s.

It was originally built in the late 19th century as offices for the Hull Docks Company.

The museum is expected to close to the public for around 18 months during the facelift which is expected to start in 2019. Before then, detailed planning will take place to work out how all the schemes will be phased and delivered.

Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund, took a tour of the proposed regeneration sites after it was announced the city council was committing £12.5m of its own cash alongside the HLF's £15m grant.

"Hull's maritime story is unique and deserves to be told," she said.

"We wanted to invest here because the City of Culture has really created a momentum for Hull. It just seems the right thing to do."